Meet the young people talking about what the future of green jobs will look like | CBC Radio

What do you think of first when people talk about “green” jobs? 

Many might think first of science-forward jobs: those working directly with chemistry or biology, or tracking changes in the environment like warming temperatures or rising water levels around the world over the years.

While that’s certainly a part of it, some groups including those with a focus on young environmentalists are trying to broaden or redefine what a green job is.

“Green jobs are in this radio room, for people like you who are talking about our planet,” Aishwarya Puttur told What on Earth’s Laura Lynch. 

“Once we create the youth definition [of green jobs] from all of this input that’s been taken from young people across the world, we’re really trying to … use this definition to lobby our governments, to talk to stakeholders and to talk to those in power about how we can ensure that we’re creating policies to create a lot more sustainable and livable, jobs for young people who are emerging in the sector,” she said. 

Puttur, What on Earth’s youth columnist, was hired this past spring by the the Green Jobs for Youth Pact, a collaboration between the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

It aims to create one million new green jobs for youth, through a combination of employment, green education and youth engagement.

Puttur, 19, assembled a team of friends and other youths interested in climate action to help consult with people including students and educators across North America. The group’s findings are set to release a global report in mid-July. The program is also operating in other regions including Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. 

The ILO currently defines green jobs as “decent jobs that contribute to preserve or restore the environment, be they in traditional sectors such as manufacturing and construction, or in new, emerging green sectors such as renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

Puttur says green jobs can also include policy and communications, forest restoration, or teachers educating students about climate change.

While speaking with students at workshops as part of the program, Puttur says she was surprised at how many young people hadn’t learned about the green jobs sector, or how broad it could potentially be.

“It was really, really eye-opening for them, but also eye-opening for me to see the lack of education surrounding the green sector.

Ben Simoni, executive director of the Youth Climate Corps B.C. — an environmental non-profit that pays young people living wages to work in climate-related jobs — agreed that more jobs could be classified as green or non-carbon-emitting jobs than is typically thought of.

He encourages people to think about what kinds of jobs are more sustainable long-term — he said, for example, someone going into the trades will have a more promising future by training to install heat pumps instead of natural gas infrastructure.

“We want to really be setting up young people for success … because there’s just simply more of this work that’s going to be needed to be done,” he said. “And we think that especially young people from marginalized communities should be benefiting most from it.”

Youth Climate Corps B.C. is funded by donations and a one-time $3 million grant from the B.C. government. Simoni said they’re currently supporting 22 young workers in green jobs, and hope to expand with more programs this fall.

Federal climate action in the U.S.

Chiena Ty also thought green jobs and related initiatives were mostly based in the hard sciences, until she learned more about the sector as part of California Climate Action Corps, where she now works as a communications fellow.

“I’m really fortunate to have experienced the social side of environmental work and sustainability. So I got to learn more about how we tell stories and tell people what’s going on,” she said. So while she might not be the one monitoring rising temperatures or water levels, she can help tell people the basics of what’s going on, and why they should care.

Ty, based in Sacramento, Calif., has been a member of that state’s climate corps for about two years. But she’s also part of the federal American Climate Corps, a federal initiative formed in September 2023 by President Joe Biden.

Ty, who is in her late 20s, said her “environmental consciousness” began in a college environmental science class when she learned that much of the trash sent to landfills may end up being sent to other countries. It ignited a desire to do more herself, whether that meant personally reducing food waste or taking part in climate action initiatives.

“I was just really shocked to know that my consumerism habits are just being ignored and pushed away to someone else,” she said.

The American Climate Corps plans to recruit 20,000 young people for green jobs across multiple private and public sectors. At the moment though, its website only lists about 330 jobs. A column by the American nonprofit site The Hechinger Report noted that most jobs listed on the site weren’t newly created as a result of the program.

Simoni praised the Biden government for establishing the ACC, despite the polarized politics that might have blocked it.

“It’s just so awesome to see that we can do it at a bigger scale and nationwide, and have recognition that this is really important priority to take care of tackling the climate crisis and to have more eyes on us and have climate action be important to more people,” she said.

He hopes something similar might happen at the federal level in Canada; he said Youth Climate Corps B.C. has had promising conversations with Natural Resources Canada, but that a new announcement along the lines the American Climate Corps is likely still a long way away.

Puttur says that while programs like the Green Jobs for Youth Pact or American Climate Corps are promising, there’s still much more community enthusiasm and knowledge that could be better tapped into with even more government support, to help build the next generation of green jobs while also building a just transition out of legacy sectors.

“All governments have to do is tap into these spaces and collaborate, because that is only how we can really build a green sector that is tangible and is based off of community,” she said.